The Chinese HongQi 61A SAM vehicle

The Chinese HongQi 61A SAM vehicle

The Chinese HongQi 61A SAM vehicle is a low to middle Surface to Air Missile system, the development spanned nearly 20 years, as the HongQi 61 missile was developed for other roles in the Navy as well. Other factors were the political changes in the Government, which contaminated the development.

The missile development was initially carried out by Beijing-based 2nd Space Academy (now China Academy of Defence Technology) in 1965 under the designation HongQi 41. In 1967 the development was taken over by Shanghai-based 2nd Mechanical-Electronic Bureau and the missile renamed HongQi 61.

The HongQi 61A passed its certification tests in 1986 and the missile’s design certificate was issued in 1988 prior to production commencing.

The HongQi 61A only saw very limited service. The air defence brigade subordinate to PLA 38th Group Army in the Beijing Military Region fields the HongQi 61A, HongQi 7, and Tor-M1 (SA-15) SAM, and 35mm AAA guns in amalgamation for field air defence roles.

A twin missile launcher is mounted on a YanAn SX2150 flatbed 6X6 truck with an azimuth range of 360°. The truck is equipped with four hydraulically operated stabilisers which are lowered in preparation for the missile launch.